Major voices in the Scottish National Party (SNP) have been going mad for Keir Starmer’s turn towards beefed-up defence spending and hardman posturing against Russia.
For a party that was once considered anti-war, the SNP have fallen into line behind Westminster, Washington, and the western imperialist bloc.
Former MP and party defence spokesman, Stewart McDonald, was glowing with enthusiasm when he told the Holyrood Sources podcast that Scotland should be loud and clear as part of Starmer’s “coalition of the willing” in support of Ukraine.
Following on from First Minister John Swinney’s endorsement of sending British troops to the frontline against Russia, McDonald opined that he should make a bold declaration at Scotland House in Brussels calling for increased arms manufacturing and military build-up in Scotland.
✍️ Me in The @spectator on @theSNP and defence: The party might not be about to change its policy on nukes, but there are moves afoot to put the party in a better position on defence than it has been recently. @JohnSwinney has the capital to do it.https://t.co/YjnKPBBxVA
— Stewart McDonald (@StewartMcDonald) March 11, 2025
At the same time, SNP grandee and former Westminster leader Ian Blackford has suggested that Scottish nationalism should drop its long-held policy of unilateral nuclear disarmament. In effect, this is a call for the SNP to support the renewal and long-term maintenance of Trident.
These men are essentially suggesting upending decades of policy. More than that, being anti-Trident is practically a cornerstone principle of the Scottish independence movement. Now it is openly questioned by former MPs.
Scotland and NATO
While the SNP has endorsed NATO for over a decade, after overturning their previous opposition, their feverish support for the US-led nuclear alliance and western intervention in Ukraine has accelerated the party’s embrace of imperialism. What anti-war credibility the SNP once had is now in tatters.
The courage demonstrated by @ZelenskyyUa and the brave people of Ukraine is truly inspiring.
They’re fighting not just for their country, but for the preservation of democracy itself.
It is for them that Scotland will, forever, #StandWithUkraine. 🇺🇦🏴 pic.twitter.com/dENsuAiH1R
— John Swinney (@JohnSwinney) March 4, 2025
It shouldn’t really be all that surprising to see petty-bourgeois Scottish nationalists move in this direction, however. McDonald was quite blatant in explaining the need for Scottish politicians to signal to the US and EU that they are compliant subjects to the imperialist order, and not out to rock the boat should Scotland one day become an independent country.
This naturally flows from the SNP’s entire conception of independence on the basis of capitalism and imperialism. Despite formal independence, Scotland would remain a subordinate and dependent country under the thumb of UK and US imperialism. Nowhere is this clearer than in matters of defence and security.
For decades Scotland was on the frontier of NATO, hosting tens of thousands of US military personnel and a fleet of nuclear submarines at Holy Loch.
During the Cold War, the ‘Greenland-Iceland-UK gap’ (GIUK) was of major strategic value in controlling the gateway to the North Atlantic and thus monitoring Soviet naval excursions.
At the end of the Cold War however, GIUK lost some of its critical significance. The UK’s Trident submarine patrols based in Faslane replaced US forces sent home in 1992. That is, until recently.
US Navy forces are returning to Scotland at RAF Lossiemouth, which received a £350 million refurbishment only completed last year. The US is also keen to move its nuclear submarines into the region as well, at a potential new base in Tromsø, Norway.
Rebuilding US presence in the North Atlantic, positioning themselves to counter Russian submarines, began under Donald Trump’s first term as President and looks to continue as he demands control of Greenland for this purpose.
In particular, the US and EU are concerned about the potential Russian threat to undersea cables beneath the Atlantic Ocean that carry 90 percent of the world’s internet data. This year NATO launched an ongoing operation to guard similar data cables in the Baltic Sea.
Desperate to retain their relevance on the global stage, the British ruling class maintain Trident and other forces to play a key part in US-led imperialist domination, and will not allow anything to risk their status. Thus when Donald Trump demands more money for war, Keir Starmer asks “how much?”.
Break with imperialism
Despite many decades of opposition to war and nuclear weapons within the independence movement, the current crop of SNP leaders seem willing to embrace the role of lieutenant to the US war machine for themselves, whether openly or reluctantly.
We cannot expect any genuine opposition to imperialist war and militaristic propaganda from these people.
If the independence movement is to retain its popular and progressive character, it needs to boldly reject the semi-comprador leadership of the SNP ruling clique.
Only a working class movement would be able to actually break the ties to imperialism and rid Scotland of warmongers and weapons of mass destruction.
